In cellular networks, a Radio Network Controller (RNC) may control a plurality of Base Stations (BSs). An upper Medium Access Control (MAC) layer may run at the RNC, and a lower layer MAC and a physical (PHY) layer may run at the base stations. The RNC may provide a base station with downlink data to be transmitted to one or more mobile communication devices associated with the base station The RNC may be connected to the base stations via wired links, e.g., having high bandwidth.
According to a conventional frame allocation all co-channel base stations may send downlink data simultaneously over the same frequency band, and receive uplink data simultaneously over the same frequency band.
In order to improve performance, data received from multiple base stations may be sent to the RNC, which may perform joint Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) detection This may require large bandwidth and increase the complexity of the RNC.